here was no danger of an
unusually large consignment of rubber bathing-caps finding their way
from Switzerland to the heads of German Fraueleins. To Colonel YATE
belongs the credit of pointing out that people do not bathe in
Switzerland in the winter.

[Illustration: "Can't we go and have a steak somewhere?" Mr. WILL
THORNE.]

Where Russia is concerned Mr. BALFOUR declines to be included among
the prophets; all he knows is that that unhappy country has not yet
evolved a Government with which he can negotiate. He was more explicit
regarding the German tale of a Privy Council in 1913, presided over
by the KING, at which Mr. ASQUITH and Lord KITCHENER conspired with
Sir EDWARD GREY and Lord MORLEY (whose "Reminiscences" are strangely
silent on the subject) to declare war upon Germany. Who after this
shall dare to say that the Germans have no imagination?

Mr. WILL THORNE considers that compulsory rationing ought to be
postponed until the menus at the hotels and clubs are cut down to two
courses. Somebody ought to invite Mr. THORNE, who from his appearance
I should judge to have a healthy appetite, to partake of one of these
(alleged) Gargantuan feasts and see what he thinks of it. His comment
would probably be, "Can't we go and have a steak somewhere?"

When is a leaflet not a leaflet? "When it is an election address,"
says Sir GEORGE CAVE. At the same time he warned Mr. KING that if he
thought to get round the new regulations by embodying his peculiar
views in the form of electioneering literature he might still collide
with "Dora." The warning was surely superfluous. The last thing any
Pacifist M.P. wishes to do is to submit himself to the judgment of his
constituents.

_Tuesday, November 27th_.--Mr. MACPHERSON'S statement that officers
with the Expeditionary Force are supplied with whisky at prices
varying from _3s. 6d_. to _6s_. a bottle may have horrified the
teetotalers, but has intensified the patriotic desire of some of our
Volunteers to share the hardships of these gallant fellows in the
trenches.

There was another long-drawn-out duel between Mr. HOUSTON and Sir LEO
CHIOZZA MONEY on the subject of shipping freights. The House always
enjoys these encounters, although the opponents, like the toy
"wrestlers" of our youth, never get much "forrader." The Member for
West Toxteth has probably forgotten more about the shipping trade
than his opponent ever knew. But for all that Sir LEO keeps his end
up, though h